The Known History of OCG

We don’t actually know where OCG came from.

In the late 1990s, Amy’s sister was working at a university in Oregon and became friends with a couple from China. They regularly played this card game. From what we’ve been told, it was a calm game, something to do while carrying on an evening’s conversation.

Once while Amy’s mom was visiting, she learned the game from her daughter, Amy’s sister and the couple. She came home to Iowa and taught it to us.

She messed up one rule and we got a better game.

One Rule Changes

In the original game you only played during your turn. In the version her mom taught us, bombs could also be played out of turn.

That one change made the game faster and required everyone to pay attention even when it wasn’t their turn.

A couple of years later, Amy’s sister played with us again.

She noticed and did not like the change.

After she left, we talked about playing the original rules … for about thirty seconds.

Forms & Bombs: 2002

We don’t remember exactly how often we played during those first few years, but it must have been fairly regularly or we would have moved on to something else. I also started sharing it with my extended family.

The oldest written rules I still have are dated December 1, 2002, titled Forms and Bombs (Chinese Card Game). My parents still have their copy.

Chinese Card Game: 2009–2012

For years we simply called it the Chinese Card Game. Nobody had ever told us its real name, and we didn’t have anything better.

The first branding kept the name we’d always used and I researched and incorporated the Chinese character for “play.” The oldest surviving logo I’ve found is dated January 22, 2011, although the Chinese Card Game branding dates to about 2009.

That was the beginning of a search for a name that is apparently still going on.

Master & Slave: 2012–2017

In 2012, Master & Slave became the first real attempt to give the game a name of its own.

The name came from the titles assigned the winner and loser of a hand. After a while, I thought the terms would not go over well as I brought in a larger group to play.

Time for another logo.

Bombs: 2017–2022

In 2017, the game became Bombs, this time named for its most distinctive element and, appropriately, the one rule that had accidentally changed our version twenty years earlier. The logo was somewhat steampunk and I envisioned custom decks.

This was also the period when I created Grey Duck, a related game, in 2017.

Bombs lasted another five years.

Then I decided this would not market well and it needed another name.

OCG: 2022–Present

In 2022, Bombs became OCG — Our Card Game.

That’s the name we use today.

I’m still not convinced it’s the right one. So I wouldn’t put too much confidence in the word “Present” above.

Before 1997

Over the years I’ve made some attempts to figure out what game the Chinese couple originally taught Amy’s sister.

I’ve found a number of similar games, but nothing that lets me confidently point to one and say, “That’s it.”

There are families of related games, regional variations and generations of house rules. OCG appears to belong somewhere in one of those families.

So 1997 isn’t really the beginning of OCG.

It’s simply where our part of the story begins.

In Summary

It came from somewhere in China to Oregon, then home to Iowa. One rule got messed up. Amy and I kept playing it. We shared it with family, brought it to Colorado and eventually made it the game at our card parties. Since then, hundreds of people have learned to play.

There have been written rules, four names, a ridiculous number of logos, a related game, software, T-shirts and more than sixty card parties.

And I’m still not sure what to call it.